This story involves a professor who falls into an altered mental state for five years and recovers with no memory of that time. Via obscure research he learns of a great and ancient race that has been swapping minds with individuals of our time (and beyond) in order to learn about the future. He starts to remember the time he, in turn, spent with the Great Race, but remains uncertain whether it was all a dream or he is even going mad -- until he receives an invitation to examine some ruins in the Australian desert.

The first part of the story is very interesting, but although it is not nearly as rambling as some of Lovecraft's other long works, the second part does feel very much the same as his other "exploratory" tales (particularly "At the Mountains of Madness"). Eldritch, Cyclopean...you know. Typical of Lovecraft, there is a last-line zinger. Definitely worth a read, but his short pieces remain, as always, my favorites. ( )